Some advice for a beginner building a 1911.

[penguin156]

I've built a few AR's before, but that was easy. Now it's time for a real challenge, building a 1911. I have never built one before. I have shot them and field stripped them for cleaning, but I have never taken them apart beyond that. I have also only owned one 1911 style pistol, and that was a Para P14-45. Is it realistic for a guy with that limited of a 1911 background to build one?

If you don't think it's a horrible idea for me to try out, I think I'm going to go with a Caspian Race Recon frame and a slide for a 5" barrel for a tactical application. Don't worry, I'm still legally a Wisconsin resident, so I'm good to go back there and buy my frame. On the website it says that for $75 they will fit the frame and slide to 98%. Is it worth it to do this, and how hard is it going to be to fit it the rest of the way for that?

I was thinking about going with a light weight firing pin and a heavy spring set up instead of a 80-series firing pin safety. Would you recommend this, or is this a bad idea? It costs more to have them make the 80 series cut, so some advice would help.

I noticed that some manufactures of high end tactical 1911's like to use a stainless frame with a carbon steel slide. When I try to make sense of this, I just figured the stainless frame was for more mass equaling less felt recoil and the steel slide was to reducing reciprocal mass. Am I on the right track here? If you were going to build a bad *** tactical 1911 would you go with a stainless steel frame / carbon steel slide combo, or would you do something else and why?

How do you feel about bull barrels? The only 5" bull barrel 1911 that I've seen is the Kimber Gold Combat II, and they seem to get stuff right from what I've seen, so I was wondering how all of the Calgun experts felt. Would you try out a 5" bull barrel, or would you just find that ridiculous, and why?

Also, I really love the look of the S&W1911PD with the rail. I was thinking about doing a finish on one, if I build one. Their website says that they have a Black Anodized Frame/Melonite Slide. About how much would it cost to finish a 1911 like this?

I think I had a few more questions such as internal / external extractors, but I'm pretty sure that all of that has been discussed in depth in past threads. Any help that you could give me with my questions would be great. Thanks for the info in advance.

[Rekrab]

There's a really great write-up by a guy that wanted to build his own 1911. It took him two years in his spare time to do it. The article is great but I can't find it at the moment...

Search around a while and you might be able to track it down. You may also want to check the 1911 forums.

[JTROKS]

Back in the days when stainless made a debut in major firearms parts the manufacturers had to consider galling. There weren't high tolerance 1911s build with stainless slide and frame or something of a fad at the time was to fit an AMT stainless slide to a series 70 carbon steel frame. I was told the AMT stainless slide had enough meat in the rails to produce a bank vault like fit, plus the stainless won't have the galling problem with the carbon steel frame.

Building a 1911 from Caspian parts is definitely a challenge for most Californians, you can't get the frame unless you're LEO or did DOJ just drop the handgun safety roster list?

[goober]

go check out Homegunsmith.com
lots of 1911 build threads & how-to's there

ETA oh i just realized that by "build" you mean "assemble" as in buying parts and putting them together. not that there's anything wrong with that, in fact that seems to be common usage here. guess i should have read your post beyond the 1st sentence or two
anyway there's little need to check Homegunsmith for that type of info.
just about anyone that is mechanically inclined, understands how guns work, and can do minor fitting/adjustment of parts can assemble a 1911.

[leelaw]

Firing pin: Get a standard series 70. Don't go lightweight. Don't go with a series 80.

Caspian frame/slide: Excellent choice. Caspian makes some really good stuff. If you get them to mostly-fit it, then that leaves final lapping and maybe some filing to you. If you have the patience to do it right, then do it. You will get some amazingly smooth results.

Frame/Slide Composition: If you were to pick which part to be stainless, I'd make the slide stainless, and the frame carbon steel.

Bull barrel: Not a bad choice. It means some more fitting that you can't easily fix if you screw up (ie: replace the barrel bushing) so go slow.

Finish: Melonite is a nice finish. Expect a complete finish to run around $200.

Where are you located?

[ArnFromVA]

There's a really great write-up by a guy that wanted to build his own 1911. It took him two years in his spare time to do it. The article is great but I can't find it at the moment...

Search around a while and you might be able to track it down. You may also want to check the 1911 forums.

I think this is the one you're talking about: http://how-i-did-it.org/1911-project/index.html

[brassburnz]

The 1911 Forum has some very knowledgeable and helpful guys.

http://forums.1911forum.com/

Over the years, I've built about six 1911's from scratch and rebuilt several more. I've been sitting on a carbon steel Caspian slide for about 3 years now waiting to decide what to do. I also have a 9mm/38 Super Caspian slide that's been sitting around for about 20 years.

I'm pretty comfortable with the fire controls now. I understand what it takes to get a nice 2.5 to 4 pound trigger. I can fit a grip safety and a thumb safety. I can fit an extractor. I can tune a magazine. I'm also getting pretty good at checkering a front strap. Barrel fitting, fitting a bushing, and getting a good slide to frame fit is beyond my skills.

The AGI armorer's course on DVD is a good place to start. Just go slow, and if you don't know, ask. It's a lot of fun building a 1911.

[Synergy]

C&S has a 1911 building class

http://www.cylinder-slide.com/1911class_new.shtml

[eaglemike]

A 1911 is mostly pretty simple. I'd suggest getting the frame to slide done by Caspian if this is your first time. Barrel fitting is also a challenge if this is your first build. Lots of instruction out there, but nothing replaces getting out there and doing it. I'd suggest practicing on a cheap barrel, or send the frame and slide to Barsto and letting them fit a barrel for you. Their stuff is really, really good, and I've never heard about a bad job from them. (now watch them crop up) Fitting a few other parts takes some understanding, time and care, but the parts are cheaper. Fitting a beavertail grip safety to a frame that hasn't been cut for it can be daunting to a first timer. The material can't be replaced easily, so better to go slow. Some companies offer services for this. This part also has to block the trigger until it's depressed as you grip. The other pain is the thumb safety. I'm pretty fond of the Ed Brown stuff. Well made in my experience. I only know of one problem with one, and they backed it right up. A really good hammer and sear will help with trigger weight a lot. AS noted above, I'd not suggest a light weight firing pin. A good quality f/p of standard weight will help long term reliability. I personally like the bull barrel setups, and I've found them pretty easy to fit. Remember that a lot of barrels come with short or undersize chambers, so you'd nee to buy or borrow a reamer unless a friend has one. It's also nice to have go and no-go gauges. These can get expensive. DAMHIK....

It's a very rewarding thing to do. Good luck!

all the best,
Mike

[penguin156]

So you can actually get a tighter fit with a Stainless / Carbon combo than a Carbon / Carbon combo? Is there any reason that you'd do a Stainless slide instead of the frame?

It looks like I have a lot of research to do. I don't even know what lapping is. Maybe I should try to find and do some work on a cheapo 1911 and that way if I mess up it's no big deal.

Firing pin: Get a standard series 70. Don't go lightweight. Don't go with a series 80.

Caspian frame/slide: Excellent choice. Caspian makes some really good stuff. If you get them to mostly-fit it, then that leaves final lapping and maybe some filing to you. If you have the patience to do it right, then do it. You will get some amazingly smooth results.

Frame/Slide Composition: If you were to pick which part to be stainless, I'd make the slide stainless, and the frame carbon steel.

Bull barrel: Not a bad choice. It means some more fitting that you can't easily fix if you screw up (ie: replace the barrel bushing) so go slow.

Finish: Melonite is a nice finish. Expect a complete finish to run around $200.

Where are you located?

[JTROKS]

You really don't need to get a stainless slide fitted to a carbon frame, those were the old days I was referring to. If you don't wanna mess with fitting the slide to frame, tell them to do it. I've seen and played around with a few Caspian slide and receiver sets and they were tight and smooth. I'm thinking you can get them to fit the barrel too, they have had some of those kits that are ready to go and all you have to do is fit the little parts and finished to your liking. If that's what you want to look into, another kit available are the STI short blocks. http://www.stiguns.com/Shortblocks/index.html

[penguin156]

Okay guys, never mind. I ended spending pretty much my whole 1911 fund on a Kimber Raptor II.

I guess all that I'd be wondering now is if you think refinishing it would be foolish. I still really like the melonite slide, black frame look, but would this look stupid on a Raptor? Also, I'm guessing that I should probably wait until the finish starts wearing to refinish it maybe. What do you think. Anything else that I could do to a Raptor II to improve her, or is she pretty much as good as she's going to get?

[leelaw]

I've had a 1911 with a melonite finish, and I have a Raptor with the factory finish. The Raptor would look better with melonite, IMHO.

One thing I'd consider on a Raptor is a matched hammer, sear, disconnector and springs set from Cylinder & Slide. I like the Raptor, but think the trigger could be a little lighter.